Bible Geek Word Nerd - To Say #1

Speaking of Saying - #1

July 7, 2023

With this post, we begin a mini-series on the many Hebrew words that English translators render as some form of “to say”. In the NIV translation of the Hebrew Bible, the verb “say” appears almost 1400 times. “Says” and “saying” comprise 633 and 218 occurrences. But the verb in its past tense form of “said” shows up a whopping 2,196 times. Throw in “tell”, “talk, and “declare, and you can add 1100 more occurrences of the words we will discuss in this series. G-d and His people speak a lot, and a lot of the writing in the Text tells us about what’s been spoken.

 

We contend that there is not really a “poor” translation of the Text in English, just translations with different slants or editorial points of view. English translators have an extremely difficult task because Hebrew has significantly fewer words than does English. There are just 8679 unique words, including names, in the Hebrew Bible. By comparison, Webster’s dictionary contains 470,000 entries, while the OED has nearly 220,000 entries, including obsolete words (which comprise just over 20% of the total). Moreover, the Hebrew text is static and fixed, while English evolves and grows over time. As a simple example, William Shakespeare alone added 1700 new words to English (or codified in writing words that might have only been spoken before his quill touched the page).

 

Fewer Hebrew words with more varied meanings result in translators making hard choices. Sometimes we like those choices and agree with them; sometimes, we do not. This is one reason it is so challenging to translate Biblical Hebrew into English (and the chief reason one simply cannot have a “literal, word-for-word” translation: it just does not work that way).

 

This small Bible Geek Word Nerd project was born out of frustration with some of those translator choices. We want to know what Hebrew terms lie behind the translation. Sometimes, these discoveries are banal and minor. But occasionally, they are epiphanies which alter how we understand and then apply the Text.

 

We suspect some of the discussions on this page are like that, too. We imagine that readers will often yawn at a post. But perhaps once in a while, seeing the Text in a slightly different way will open your eyes to its rich, nuanced meaning. Like holding a diamond up to the light, it shows something different each time.

 

After that lengthy preamble, we will begin with the least frequently used Hebrew term: MALAL (מָלַל). It means “to speak, utter, say” and appears only five times in the Hebrew Bible, beginning with Genesis 21:7: “And she added, ‘Who WOULD HAVE SAID (מִלֵּל֙) to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’”

 

ותאמר מי מלל לאברהם היניקה בנים שרה כי־ילדתי בן לזקניו

 

In Psalm 106:2, the Psalmist writes: “Who CAN PROCLAIM (יְ֭מַלֵּל) the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise?” 

 

מי ימלל גבורות יהוה ישמיע כל־תהלתו

 

Interestingly, what the translators render as “fully declare” in this verse is the Hebrew verb SHAMA (שָׁמַע), which has the primary meaning “to hear”. How does hearing lead to fully declaring? A fair question, the answer to which we will take up in a future post. But also be warned: some answers about ancient languages are not obtainable.

 

The final example for MALAL is from Proverbs 6:13, which in the context of verses 12-14, says:

 

“A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, SIGNALS (מֹלֵ֣ל) with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart – he always stirs up conflict.” 

 

קרץ בעיניו מלל ברגלו מרה באצבעתיו

 

Signals? The KJV has it that he “speaketh” with his feet. The RSV says he “scrapes” with his feet. The Message uses “shuffle their feet”. The NLT sort of gives up on translating MALAL by itself and attempts to give a sense of the verse’s intent:

 

“signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.”

 

Translating is hard work, and reading for meaning demands that you avail yourself of multiple versions of Scripture. (Praise be for Bible Gateway, YouVersion, Blue Letter Bible, Accordance, OliveTree, and Bible Hub, all of which use technology to help the student of the Text plumb its depths).

 

Next post, we will take up the word most frequently translated as “to say”.